The election’s over and not much has happened. But that’s not the way democracy is supposed to work. Besides, doing nothing isn’t good enough in this environment. In fact, doing nothing in the presidency is never good enough; sometimes it’s dangerous. The 9/11 Commission made this point when it included a number of recommendations that addressed the security risks associated with presidential transitions. One implication of the Commission’s report was that the Bush Administration may have missed the warning signs of an impending terrorist attack simply because it was pre-occupied with the transition – and that transition was in peace time in a relatively placid economic environment.

Perhaps it’s time to rethink this structural defect in our Constitution. There’s no way to avoid some of the uncertainty and inefficiency of presidential transitions, but we can certainly reduce the risk. Maybe it’s time to do something about presidential transitions — let’s get rid of them.

The last presidential transition in crisis was in 1932 when Herbert Hoover was defeated by FDR. For five long months, (the inauguration was held on March 4 in those days), Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt danced around one another while the economy collapsed. Hoover frantically tried to persuade Roosevelt to sign on to a series of reforms and policy commitments before the Democrat took office. Roosevelt, fearing that he would be trapped into policies with which he did not agree, demurred.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the 1932 – 33 transition was the last that was held on March 4, the date being moved up in subsequent years to January 20th. Actually, the 20th or “Lame Duck” Amendment was “proposed” by Congress (approved by two-thirds of both Houses of Congress) on March 2, 1932 and ratified by seventeen states before the election that year. But it was only after the election, in January 1933, that the necessary three quarters of the states voted to make the Amendment part of the Constitution.

Obviously we have survived and prospered under the shortened transition period. There is no reason not to make the transition period even shorter.

In the 18th century, when the Constitution was written, a long transition was necessitated by the lack of communication. It took time after the election to tabulate the vote, to transmit the vote to the state capitol, to bring the presidential electors to the state capitols to cast their votes, and then to transmit the results Washington for Congress to approve. Clearly, a lot of this procedure has been speeded up or is unnecessary. Consequently, I see no reason not to reduce the length of the transition to a couple of days or at most a week.

Details, Details

There are going to be plenty of objections to this proposal, so let me anticipate some of them and, later, respond to others as they come up.

What about the Electoral College? Besides the fact that it might be time for the Electoral College to go (a topic for another column), the Electoral College could fit into this scheme. In the modern era there is no need for a slate of electors to physically meet, or even to be selected. States can cast their electoral votes for one candidate or the other simply by certifying their election results. Under most circumstances this could happen within a day or two of the election. The added bonus would be that there would be no chance of an “unfaithful elector” (an elector who casts their vote for somebody other than the candidate to whom they are pledged).

What about Congress? Pursuant to the Constitution, Congress has to meet to certify the Electoral College results. A shorter transition would necessitate (probably) a lame duck session of Congress immediately following the general election. There is no reason that Congress couldn’t convene to receive the Electoral College results a couple of days after the election.

But what if there is a controversy and the election isn’t yet decided? In other words, what would happen in an election similar to the one in 2000? In that case, Congress would await the results and the incumbent President would stay in office as a caretaker until some date certain. In 2008, there were a couple of states that were still undecided a couple of days after the election. But as it turned out, the votes didn’t matter to the final outcome, so Congress could have declared a winner despite the fact that there was not a final determination in a particular state.

But what about the administrative transition? First of all, parliamentary systems get on perfectly well without lengthy transitions. Second, in a modern state there is a large, professional bureaucracy that serves regardless of the politics of any particular administration. Nevertheless, a new president, especially one from another party, would inherit a government staffed at the top by the previous administration. Could appointees from the previous administration be trusted to do their jobs? On balance, I think the answer is yes. There is always a certain amount of political hackery in the politics of presidential appointments but most public officials whether appointed or professional are loyal Americans first. Of course, the new President will want to replace existing political appointees. But that can be done in an orderly fashion, without what we have now, a wholesale abandonment of the Executive Branch by the leaving administration.

But what about the parade and all the parties? Look, these presidential transitions are a serious business. How about on the day of the inauguration a parade and a dinner hosted by the outgoing president for the incoming president? These inaugural festivities have begun to go too far. They are often an opportunity for corporations and individuals to buy influence off the books. Corporate sponsorships and candidate shakedowns are the order of the day. Enough already!!! Let’s get to the business of governing.

What are some of the other advantages? If the outgoing president isn’t sure who the incoming president will be until just before he/she leaves office, that will cut out a lot of the last minute shenanigans that have been going on during these transitions literally since the beginning. Will an outgoing president want to embarrass an incoming president of his own party with a wave of last minute pardons, appointments, regulatory reforms, and executive orders? Lame duck presidents still have a lot of power; let’s do our best to see that they exercise it responsibly (to the voters).

President-Elect Obama is right; it’s time for a change. Let’s start with the transition.